{"id":11532,"date":"2021-01-22T18:52:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T18:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=11532"},"modified":"2021-01-22T18:52:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T18:52:17","slug":"kenya-ngong-diocese-launches-year-of-st-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/22\/kenya-ngong-diocese-launches-year-of-st-joseph\/","title":{"rendered":"KENYA: Ngong Diocese Launches Year of St. Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA<\/em><\/p>\n

Nearly a month after Pope Francis issued a decree<\/a> proclaiming a special year dedicated to Saint Joseph the spouse of the Virgin Mary and also to mark the 150th<\/sup> anniversary of the saint as patron of the Universal\u00a0Church,<\/em> Kenya\u2019s Ngong Diocese has launched a year-long celebration for St. Joseph with monthly reflections for Christians to understand the role of the foster-father of Jesus the Christ in the Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe year of St. Joseph is an opportune moment to make the role of St. Joseph visible and more pronounced,\u201d The Local Ordinary of Ngong Diocese Bishop John Oballa Owaa said during the launch on Sunday, January 17 and disclosed, \u201cThere will be monthly reflections and prayers to assist Christians internalize the role of St. Joseph.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diocese which will have the year-long celebration from Sunday, January 17 until Saturday, December 4, when the diocese commemorates its family day, has commenced its first monthly reflection on St. Joseph as the \u201cMost valiant protector of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the consecutive months until December, Christians in the diocese will have reflections and prayers on various aspects of St. Joseph life and character. During the Sunday launch, Rt. Rev. Oballa told the Christians that \u201cSt. Joseph was a righteous and dignified man who was called and chosen by God as the head of God’s household.\u201d He reminded them that \u201cNot a word is recorded from him directly, and yet he was a faithful husband, a caring father, and a faithful worker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop Oballa who also serves as Vice-Chairman of Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB)\u00a0 disclosed further that St. Joseph played a silent and yet an important role in the birth of Jesus, \u201cNo wonder he was chosen to be the Protector and Model of the Universal Church and Family.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThis year, by our monthly reflection on him, we should make him better known and loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the launch which took place at St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral in Ngong, the Prelate similarly blessed the tools which parishes will use during the celebration including the Bible, the Cross, candles, and the Statue of St. Joseph.<\/p>\n

Expounding the significance of celebrating St. Joseph in a note shared with AMECEA online, the Diocesan Catholic Men Association (CMA) Co-ordinator Mr. John Sonkori noted that it is an opportunity meant to strengthen the role of men in the Family, Church, and society.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaint Joseph is portrayed as the Father of the Church who walks and nurtures the Church,\u201d he said and continued, \u201cHe is portrayed as a Father who walks with his children guiding, protecting, providing, and teaching them good morals and virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Pope Francis\u2019 document Patris Corde<\/em>,<\/a> (With a Father\u2019s Heart), St. Joseph played a key role in salvation history and he has always been venerated as a Father by Christians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is shown by the countless churches dedicated to him worldwide, the numerous Religious institutes, confraternities and ecclesial groups inspired by his spirituality and bearing his name, and the many traditional expressions of piety in his honour,\u201d reads in part the Pope\u2019s Apostolic letter.<\/p>\n

Parishes under Ngong Diocese will launch the year of St. Joseph on January 24, during the celebration of Sunday of the Word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA Nearly a month after Pope Francis issued a decree proclaiming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-kenya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11533,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11532\/revisions\/11533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}